The Smartest Kids in the World

And How They Got That Way

By: Amanda Ripley

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

How do other countries create "smarter" kids? In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy.What is it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers?

In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embed­ded in these countries for one year. Kim, 15, raises $10,000 so she can move from Oklahoma to Finland; Eric, 18, exchanges a high-achieving Minnesota suburb for a booming city in South Korea; and Tom, 17, leaves a historic Pennsylvania village for Poland.

Through these young informants, Ripley meets battle-scarred reformers, sleep-deprived zombie students, and a teacher who earns $4 million a year. Their stories, along with groundbreaking research into learning in other cultures, reveal a pattern of startling transformation: none of these countries had many "smart" kids a few decades ago. Things had changed. Teaching had become more rigorous; parents had focused on things that mattered; and children had bought into the promise of education.

A journalistic tour de force, The Smartest Kids in the World is a book about building resilience in a new world-as told by the young Americans who have the most at stake.

©2013 Amanda Ripley (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A compelling, instructive account regarding education in America, where the arguments have become 'so nasty, provincial, and redundant that they no longer lead anywhere worth going.'" ( Kirkus)

Interesting discussion of country differences

The author goes into detail on a small number of countries relying heavily on a few students studying abroad. While interesting, this is not a must read.

The Performance is docked for taking on a really odd and insulting Asian accent

good info

The book was very interesting. It informs about school systems in the US and in other countries. It tells stories of exchange students and their perspectives. It explained what I should look for when choosing a school for my child, which I going very helpful. The narrator was good too.

Skimmed the surface

This was an interesting listen; however, I left feeling a bit unsatisfied. Ms. Ripley investigated the 3 educational Super Powers and our own system, then followed 3 students who were studying abroad to said super powers in order to investigate their systems and ultimately answer questions about the shortfalls of the US educational system. Lofty, right?

While the book definitely offered some conclusions, it fell short on really delving into the experiences of the children, explained a lot without offering opportunities for change, and I don't think I have a great handle on *how* to find *my* children better education (which was why I selected it).

Some pretty cool facts were offered, which will definitely guide my decision making process in the future (READ TO YOUR KIDS! SEEK VIGOR! NEVER ENROLL YOUR KIDS IN KOREAN SCHOOLS!), but I feel as though she either needed to make the book much longer to fully flush out the components, follow only 1 country, or not try so hard to invest us in the Americans abroad b/c their stories just kind of dropped off...

The narrator did a nice job of a difficult job, considering the accent demands. She managed to add subtle, non-offensive, inflections when necessary and maintained a nice pace.

quality review of education systems

the author does a great job of providing detailed reviews of various educational systems around the world. I appreciated that it felt even handed. There are some action items in the appendix.

Great teachers+ Raise kids' bar+ Don't exaggerate

Why certain kids learn so much and others don't? Amanda Ripley try to answer this and other questions with "The Smartest Kids in the World". She goes after the PISA results (a triennial international survey which evaluates skills and knowledge of 15 year old students from more than 65 countries) and focus in 3 countries: South Korea, Finland and Poland, comparing them with United States.
She follows 3 exchange students, giving a personal, concrete and fresh air to the story, constructing an easy to learn and very interesting book.
Amanda argues that PISA results don't measure only theory, but readiness to solve day to day problems, think critically, how to use the knowledge and comunicate well.
*Korea-- The pressure cooker that goes to extremes-- The public school is not free- in Busan, the price for the family is around 1500 dollars/ year. The school starts at 8 and goes till 16:10. Then, the kids clean the classroom (the kids that don't behave use red pinnies and clean the bathroom). At 16:30, they settled back in their seats for test-prep classes. Then they eat dinner in the school cafeteria. After dinner came yaja, a two hour period of study loosely supervised by teachers. Around 21:00 they get out of school, but the study is not over yet. 70% still go to a private tutor or hagwons till the curfew, 23:00. The teenagers do nothing but study. And they become exhausted, so they have to sleep in class the next day (they bring pillows to school). All of this because they need to pass the exams to enter the 3 best Universities of Korea. The people think that performance comes after hard work and is not a God given talent. They have an academic purpose well established and high expectations of what they can achieve. Education is the country's treasure.
* Finland- The role model- The teaches are rigidly selected, earn well and have autonomy and prestige. Differently from the rest of the world where teachers teach what they don't know they are expected to be the best from their generation. There is a common sense that runs through society about the seriousness of education (everybody care) and a clarity of purpose. Kids can learn how to fail and get back to their feet while still young.
*Poland- a country where 1/6 of children live in poverty, where criminality was high and had a beaten soul. A country that should fail in Pisa, but the Minister of Education took action.The reforms that Handke implemented changed the point of equilibrium-- put more rigor into the system, changed curriculum, created 4.000 schools overnight, forced teachers to learn more and raised expectations about what kids should accomplish. He showed the world that reforms don't take so much time to be felt. Three years later, everybody saw the jump.
Amanda Ripley writes that even today's blue collar jobs need critical thinking and that people graduate from high school without the basics. So, to have the education that our kids deserve, we need to be rigid and care about knowledge, within certain limits.
Great book!

great book

this type of book isn't normally my cup of tea, but I totally loved it. It was a lot of information, but the author did a perfect job on highlighting what you needed to know in order to follow along.
Great narration too!

Great book

The book was great to read. Loved it and will recommend it to my friends.

Thoughtful interesting. A must read!

This book looks at high achieving schools across the world from students' perspectives. If you want to know what it takes for high achieving education for your kids read this.

In Depth, Unassuming, Openly Recommended

This was informative and will help any parent who wishes the best for their child. It reviews evidence and counter evidence and was a very valuable use of my time.

Great book

This was a great book. I would recommend it to anyone in education or anyone that makes decisions on the future of our education system.